New chairman taking over at Imperial

Iain Napier is due to retire as non-executive chairman, and Berge Setrakian is due to retire as a non-executive director at the end of Imperial Tobacco’s annual general meeting, which is being held today.

Deputy chairman Mark Williamson will become chairman, and Michael Herlihy will succeed Williamson as senior independent director. Herlihy will step down as chairman of the remuneration committee and will be succeeded by David Haines.

From tomorrow, Karen Witts is due to become an independent non-executive director of the company and join the audit, remuneration and nominations committees of the board. Witts is group finance director and executive director of Kingfisher PLC.